Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood PDF

Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Chapter 7 Guideposts for Study l How do children’s bodies and brains change between ages 3 and 6, and what sleep problems and motor achievements are common? l What are the major health and safety risks for yo...

Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Chapter 7 Guideposts for Study l How do children’s bodies and brains change between ages 3 and 6, and what sleep problems and motor achievements are common? l What are the major health and safety risks for young children? l What are typical cognitive advances and immature aspects of preschool children’s thinking? © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Guideposts for Study l What memory abilities expand in early childhood? l How is preschoolers’ intelligence measured, and what are some influences on it? l How does language improve during early childhood, and what happens when its development is delayed? l What purposes does early childhood education serve, and how do children make the transition to kindergarten? © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Bodily Growth and Change l Around age 3, children lose “baby roundness” – Limbs lengthen, height increases l Cartilage turns to bone faster © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Physical Growth: Ages 3 to 6 Height in cm Weight in kg Age Boys Girls Boys Girls 3 95.25 93.98 14.51 13.60 4 102.87 100.33 16.32 15.87 5 109.22 107.95 18.14 18.14 6 115.57 115.57 20.86 20.41 © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Sleep Patterns l By age 5, most children – Average about 11 hours sleep a night – Give up naps l Bedtime varies among cultures: – Zuni: No regular bedtime, sleep when sleepy – Canadian Hare Indians: Bedtime after dinner, but no naps © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Typical Sleep Requirements © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Sleep Disturbances l Night Terrors – Abrupt awakening; extremely frightened l Nightmares – Common l Walking and talking – Fairly common – Accidental activation of brain’s motor control l Bed-wetting (enuresis) – About 10–15% of 5-year-olds © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Brain Development l By 6 years, brain is at 95% peak volume l Corpus callosum, linking left and right hemispheres, improves functioning l Most rapid growth in areas that support thinking, language, and spatial relations © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Motor Skills l Gross – Involves large muscle groups – Jumping and running l Fine – Using eye-hand and small-muscle coordination – Buttoning a shirt, drawing pictures © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Handedness l Usually evident by age 3 l Heritability l Single-gene theory – Dominant allele for right-handedness – 82% of population is right-handed © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Artistic Development © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Preventing Obesity l Over 10% of 2- to 5-year-olds overweight l Low-income children of all ethnicities at greatest risk l Heredity and learned eating habits also contribute – As junk food spreads through developing countries, obesity rate increases © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Preventing Obesity l Approximately 15% of 2- to 5-year-olds obese l Overweight children tend to become overweight adults © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Malnutrition l Almost 30% of children worldwide are underweight, some severely l 10.3% of Turkey children under 5 live in food-insecure households (2008, NSA) l Malnutrition can harm long-term cognitive development l Early education and improved diet can moderate the effects © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Deaths and Accidental Injuries l 1.33%- deaths under 5 age in Turkey (2014) l In Turkey most child deaths are caused by deseases and accidents © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Low SES and Health l Lower SES increases risk of injury, illness, and death l Poor children are more likely to: – Be of a minority – Have chronic health problems and/or lack health insurance – Suffer vision and hearing loss l 10% of poor children are homeless—more likely to have health problems and/or depression © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Exposure to Pollutants l Parental smoking: Increases child’s risk of asthma and bronchitis l Air pollution: Increases risk of chronic respiratory diseases l Pesticide poisonings: Most occur in young children © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Exposure to Lead l Dangerous levels of lead in nearly 8% of children l Mostly poor l Lead gets in the bloodstream via: – Contaminated food or water – Contaminated dust of lead paint at home or school © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Cognitive Development: Symbolic Function l The ability to use symbols that have meaning – Words – Numbers – Images l Examples – Deferred imitation – Pretend play © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Understanding Objects in Space l Why is it hard for children under age 3 to understand scale models and maps? l Because they need to keep more than one mental representation in the mind at one time l Advancing spatial thinking: Using simple maps and models becomes easier after age 3 © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Causality l Transduction: Mentally linking phenomena, whether logical or not “My parents got a divorce because I was bad.” l Familiar settings help advance causality “I am quiet so I won’t wake the baby.” © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Animism l The tendency to attribute life to inanimate objects “The cloud is smiling at me!” l Familiarity increases accuracy “I know that a person is different from my doll.” © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Numbers: Five Counting Principles l Ordinality: number knowledge l Cardinality l Counting l Number patterns l Abstraction © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Immature Aspects of Preoperational Thought l Centration – Tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and neglect others – Egocentrism l Decentering – Thinking simultaneously about several aspects of a situation – Inability to decenter leads to illogical conclusions © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Piaget’s Approach: The Preoperational Stage l https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRF27F2 bn-A 0:52-4:12 © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Conservation Something remains the same even if its appearance is altered – Matter/mass – Liquid – Length – Number – Area – Volume © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Irreversibility l Failure to see that an action can go two or more ways A belief that pouring juice from glass to glass changes the amount of juice © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Egocentrism: The Three Mountain Task © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Theory of Mind l Children’s awareness of their own mental processes and those of other people l Preschoolers generally believe that mental activity starts and stops l By middle childhood, understand that activity is continuous © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc False Beliefs and Deception l What do you think is in the crayon box? Crayons! l What is actually in the crayon box? Candy! l What do you think Joe will say is in the crayon box? Candy! © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Appearance vs. Reality l Related to awareness of false beliefs l Requires child to simultaneously refer to two conflicting mental representations – Is a birthday candle wrapped in a crayon wrapper a crayon or a candle? © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Fantasy vs. Reality l Distinguishing between real and imagined events l Magical thinking … witches and dragons l Do you want to hold a box with an imaginary bunny or an imaginary monster?! © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Influences on Theory-of-Mind Development l Heredity and environmental effects l Child’s social skills l Talking with children about mental states l Cultural attitudes l Bilingual children do somewhat better © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Three Steps of Memory l Encoding: – process by which information is prepared for long term storage and later retrieval. l Storage: – Retention of information in memory for future use. l Retrieval: – Process by which information is accessed or recalled from memory storage. © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Types of Memory l Sensory l Working Executive function Central executive l Short-term l Long-term © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Types of Memory Retrieval l Recognition – The ability to identify something encountered before – Picking out a missing mitten from lost- and-found l Recall – Reproduce information from memory – Describe the missing mitten © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Three Types of Childhood Memories l Generic Produces “scripts”—general outlines of repeated and familiar events l Episodic Remembering a specific event at a specific time l Autobiographical – Memories that form a person’s life history – Specific and long-lasting © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Social Interaction Model of Memory l Children collaborate with parents and adults when constructing autobiographical memories Low elaborative style High elaborative style l Culture affects what children remember © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Intelligence: Psychometric Measures l Tests include verbal items Results are more reliable than nonverbal tests for younger children l Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale l WPPSI-R © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Intelligence: Vygotsky’s Theory l Children use “scaffolds” to learn— the temporary support of adults l Assess potential with dynamic tests l Zone of proximal development (ZPD) © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Language Development: Vocabulary l Fast mapping Child learns the meaning of a word after hearing only once or twice l Theory-of-mind development plays a role l By age 3, average child knows 900– 1,000 words l By age 6, knows about 2,600 and understands more than 20,000 © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Grammar and Syntax l Children start using plurals, possessives, and past tense l Know the difference between I, you, and we l Most sentences are declarative l Errors with irregular verbs Holded instead of held © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Pragmatics and Social Speech l Pragmatics – How we use language to communicate – Knowing how to ask for something l Social Speech – Speech intended to be understood by listener – Trying to explain something clearly © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Box 7.2: Private Speech l Talking aloud with no intended listener l Normal and common in childhood l Piaget: A sign of cognitive immaturity l Vygotsky: Conversation with the self v More research supports this view © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Delayed Language Development l About 3% of preschool-age children l May be problems in fast mapping l Many children catch up—especially if comprehension is normal Dialogic reading helps © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc  Emergent literacy l General linguistic skills Vocabulary, syntax, etc. l Specific Skills Phonemic awareness: Understanding that words are composed of sounds l Social interaction l Reading to children © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Types of Preschools l Child-centered (U.S.) – Stress social and emotional growth – Children choose activities and interact individually with the teacher l Academically focused (such as China) © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Compensatory Preschools: To improve: l Physical health l Cognitive skills l Self-confidence l Relationships with others l Social responsibility l Sense of dignity and self-worth for child and family © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Transitioning to Kindergarten l Today, kindergarten is more like first grade More time with worksheets and pre-reading l Preschool-experienced children transition easier l Factors easing transition: – Prosocial child – Cognitive maturity – Supportive family background © 2012 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc